Words, language, editing

Focus on the “silently”

Mark of quality or sign of rudeness?

“I am silently correcting your grammar.”

Many editors own a T-shirt, sticker or button bearing this slogan, marking them as people who care about language, or at least have a sense of humor about it. However, others think it’s not at all funny and is yet another reason for people to think editors are snooty pedants who gleefully scold the less-educated.

Both have a point, but I’d like to point out that once an editor has spent years developing and honing language skills, it is (at least for some of us) really difficult to “turn it off.” We notice typos, misplaced apostrophes, incorrect usage and grammatical errors everywhere, because it’s what we do.

I’m not going to apologize for that, but I am going to suggest that we all focus on the “silently” part rather than the “correcting” part.

I’ve had plenty of friends and relatives say things to me along the line of “I’d better watch how I talk around you!” It’s meant good-naturedly, but I always tell them I don’t correct unless I’m paid or asked to. I’m not going to think any less of a friend who says “between you and I…” or a relative who was “supposably” in charge of the picnic. While I may notice — I can’t NOT notice — I’m certainly not going to say anything. That’s just called “not being a jerk.”

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One comment

Many of my friends like to send me humorous grammar mistakes that other people have made. The really absurd stuff like “Trespassers will be violated” and “Shoplifters will be prostituted.” I think that’s a lot nicer than saying “I’d better watch how I talk around you,” plus it saves me the trouble of finding them myself. But in person, or even in personal correspondence, I’m correcting it silently. If you want me to tell you where you’ve made a grammar mistake, you have to give me money.